Insights and attitude about PR, journalism and traditional and social media.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Track Record for Predictions for 2013, Part V

Here's our report card for the ongoing stories we said we'd see covered in the media in 2013.

oThe implementation
and implications of Obamacare: This is one of 2013’s biggest stories
(other than twerking, which we didn’t predict). This will be a big story in
2014 as both political parties try to make their cases ahead of the midterm
elections. Grade: A+.

oGun control laws: As an issue, guns
generated a lot of media coverage. Grade: A.

oDeficits, spending
cuts, taxes, etc.:
This got a boost when the House of Representatives pushed the government to
shut down for two weeks. This will continue to be a story in 2014. Grade: A.

oCybercrime and
cyberwarfare:
Lots of coverage on this, especially in the first half of 2013 before leaks and
NSA took over. Grade: B+.

oSalaries
paid women vs. men. There was some
coverage about salaries but even more coverage about the roles of women in
business, thanks to Facebook's COO, Sheryl Sandberg, has generated tons of
coverage as the result of her book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. In 2013, Lean In became the big
gender-related story. Grade: B.

oCashless payments. We expect cashless
wallets to go mainstream by 2016, and are holding to that, even as alternate
credit card payment systems like Square proliferate. The Boston Globe validated our prediction with an article: "Not paying by
smartphone? You soon will, many bet. Grade: A.

oCrowdsourcing/daily
deals:
We were right that crowdsourcing continued to be a big story and right that
daily deal sites would decline in coverage. Grade: A+.

oStar
Wars: We were not surprised Wired made the new Star
Wars film (not due to 2015) a cover story, but we were pleased. Another good
prediction. There will be more speculation on characters and story lines in
2014. Grade: A.

oFees: We said
we “don’t actually expect there to be a lot of coverage of how companies use
fees to cover costs and raise revenues. However, we expect companies to
continue to rely on fees on services they used to provide for free to boost
their bottom lines.” Grade: B.

We'll post the final set on Monday. In the meantime, please check out our predictions for 2014, available here.